Scotland 35
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Scotland

George!

Rockrich R
Rockrich Sep 24, 2016 12:46:00
Replying to tiompan

tiompan wrote:
Thanks Jon & Carol .

"Why were cup marks engraved " ?

Probably lots of different reasons rather than one over arching explanation .
e.g. Apotropaism , decoration , humanising the landscape , part of a communication with the stone , self , or spirits/gods etc ,if the latter possibly related to appeals for increase /decrease in fertility , rain , drought , luck etc , territorial marker, route marker etc .
Worth pointing out that one cup mark is sometimes the sole component and there are marked rocks with no cup marks .

I'll remember this George, it's an extremely good summary of Morris's 104 + the 2 dozen I've heard since :-)

T tiompan
tiompan Sep 24, 2016 13:41:44
Replying to Rockrich

Rich ,
The Morris list has always been useful as well as a source of humour .

Of Morris’s 104 listed theories he also included those that he believed impossible .
Nearly all of those that he favoured i.e. the ones he gave the biggest marks , e.g. Astronomy , Alignment markers , Metal prospection , Megalithic inch , Right Angle Triangles all get 8-10 out of 10 , I exclided .

“ The stone circle builders carved them “ (8), can’t disagree with that but not because of the reasons given , “since the unit of measurement used in carving a spiral is exactly one fortieth of the Megalithc Yard …..it is inescapable that the latter were also responsible for the cup and ring “ .

Mojo refound ?

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